


The Enemy of My Enemy

by EchoShimmer



Series: Wumptober 2020 [6]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Enemy to Caretaker, Gen, Hurt Tim Drake, Jason Todd Swears, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Protective Jason Todd, Tim Drake is Robin, wumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26883595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoShimmer/pseuds/EchoShimmer
Summary: Tim makes some bad life choices, and a mysterious man comes to his rescue.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Series: Wumptober 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948924
Comments: 13
Kudos: 398
Collections: Red Hood vs Red Robin





	The Enemy of My Enemy

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one, but here ya go

Tim had messed up. Tim had really, really messed up.

He had been having a rough week, what with the recent explosion of gang activity lining itself up almost perfectly with his high school’s fall semester finals season. Bruce had benched Robin that night, insisting that Tim stay in the Manor and try to make up for all the hours of lost sleep after Tim had fallen asleep over his homework earlier that evening. Tim had insisted that he was fine, but Bruce had still insisted. That night, Batman had left for patrol alone.

That didn’t necessarily mean that Robin didn’t have his own methods of sneaking out, though.

That, the sneaking out part, that was Tim’s first mistake. His second mistake was jumping down from a rooftop to break up an escalated argument without having properly assessed the situation. Batman would be disappointed in him for this one. Maybe, just maybe, he had been right to insist that Robin should stay home for the night.

Of course, that didn’t do Tim any good now. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

So there Tim was, limping his way between two buildings, full of regret as he tried to use his staff like a crutch against the pain emanating from his leg where he got clipped deeply by a bullet. He could hear the gang members trailing him, no doubt honing in on the badly muffled footsteps and trail of blood. And just to round it all off, Tim’s Comm was refusing to connect to Batman’s. (Tim was going to have strong words for Oracle about the latest upgrade.)

The alley ended in a wall, because of course it did, and now Tim was really boxed in. He limped around to face them, face twisting in a scowl as he shifted his grip on his bo staff. Despite what that little traitorous voice in the back of his head was saying, he was not about to die here. He could fight well enough to convince the gang members to back off. There was no other option.

At least, that's what Tim was thinking until a large, armored figure suddenly dropped in front of Robin from above just as the pursuing gang members rounded the final corner.

For a split second, before Tim’s eyes had managed to fully process what he was seeing, his instinct was to think that Batman had found him. But no, that wasn’t right at all. The man in front of Tim may have a similar build and underlying armor, but his uniform was all wrong. He was sporting dark, armored cargo pants and a brown leather jacket, for one. Instead of the classic pointed cowl, this man was wearing a red, full-head helmet.

Also he was holding a gun. There was that.

The gang members all stopped their approach when the man appeared, unsure of how to proceed. One of them leaned forward a bit to not-so-subtly whisper to the guy who appeared to be the leader of the group.

“Uh, is that- what do we do now boss?”

The mystery man, having obviously heard the question, proceeded to click off the safety of his pistol. Tim winced slightly at the sound.

“I suggest,” he growled, voice distorted by what was obviously an in-built modulator, “that you all back the fuck off, unless you  _ want  _ to get shot. Is hurting some punk kid in a costume really worth it?”

The small group hesitated for a moment, but when the man tilted his head impatiently the leader grunted and signaled the group to back off. They slipped off into the night, plans thwarted for now.

The threat dealt with, Robin’s mysterious rescuer holstered his pistol with an annoyed mutter that didn’t quite get picked up by the modulator, spinning around to face Tim. The white eyes of his helmet were piercing in the dim lighting as he looked the smaller boy up and down as Tim did the same in turn. There was enough light, though, for Tim to make out the shape of the red bat stamped over the man’s chest and- oh. The pieces of rumors started to finally fit together in Tim’s mind, and suddenly Tim had a name for this man. 

That answered that question at least, but only served to spawn a dozen more. What was an up-and-coming crime boss doing rescuing Robin? Had Tim just exchanged one enemy for another?

“You’re kinda bad at the whole vigilante thing, aren’t ya kid?” Robin was instantly bristling at his words, forcing himself up straighter despite how his leg complained.

“No I’m not,” he scowled. “I just- messed up a bit this time. I was fine on my own, thank you. And anyways, why the hell are you dropping in and saving me anyways. Doesn’t the great Red Hood have better things to do than help out a wayward Bat?” Hood didn’t respond to the question, instead asking one of his own.

“Have you called in the big, bad Bat already? I doubt you’re going to make it back to base on your own.” Now it’s Robin’s turn to refuse to respond to a question. He might be getting a bit lightheaded, but he wasn’t stupid enough to outright admit that his Comm wasn’t working. That was just asking for trouble.

“I’m good, thanks,” Robin said with as much snark as he could muster. And he proceeded to immediately sway alarmingly on his feet. Tim may have lost more blood than previously thought, which turned out to be a bad combination with the sleep debt he was rocking at the moment. Hood lunged forward suddenly, and Tim automatically flinched back, but nonetheless Hood’s hands were wrapping under Robin’s arms, supporting his weight. Too surprised to do anything about it, Robin just blinked up at the man in confusion.

“Damn it,” Hood muttered, and suddenly Tim was being scooped off the ground and a grapple line was being shot to pull the pair up to the closest rooftop. 

Tim immediately started to struggle, warnings about being kidnapped when incapacitated flashing through his mind. He was surprised when Hood didn’t try to continue on from the roof, instead plopping Robin down on the cement. He was just… getting Tim off the street? This was all weird.

Even stranger was when he proceeded to pull bandages from one of his many pockets and just started wrapping Robin’s leg without prompting. From what Tim could remember of his own medical training, Hood was actually doing a very professional job at field dressing the wound. Once the task was done, Hood stood back up, his tall frame towering over where Robin still sat on the ground. Strangely, Tim wasn’t feeling all that scared of him anymore.

“That should hold for long enough,” Hood declared, and then suddenly he was pulling the hood itself  _ off _ . Robin just about had a panic attack before he realized that there was actually a red domino mask underneath the custom helmet. Hood wasn’t just throwing away his identity.

What Hood  _ did _ do was pull a hidden Comm unit from his ear and toss it at Robin, who fumbled a bit but caught the small device without crushing it. He blinked at the small earpiece, then glanced back up at Hood just as the man was already shoving the classic helmet back on his head.

“Call someone,” was all he said before Hood was taking off once again into the night, the sounds of the grapple firing fading into the distance.

Well. That was interesting. Robin stared after Hood's retreating form for a few moments longer before starting to mess with the newly acquired means of communication, eventually managing to get it set to the right frequency to connect to Batman’s. 

Batman answered right away, predictably mad at Tim for breaking the order to stay home until he learned that Tim was injured. Then he was more concerned than anything. Tim knew better than to think the lecture was anything more than delayed, but he would take the respite for now. He didn’t really have the brain capacity to deal with a full Batlecture at the moment.

But still, as he waited for the approaching purr of the Batmobile Tim couldn’t help but let his thoughts run over the events of the night, towards the mysterious person that was the Red Hood. He just couldn’t help feeling that there was something…  _ familiar  _ about the man. It was a gut feeling, though he couldn’t quite put the pieces together in his head.

As the familiar black car parked itself by the curb below and Batman appeared and made to join Robin on the roof, Tim decided that this would be a mystery to solve another day.

**Author's Note:**

> Day 8 is going to be another skip day for me, so I'll see you again on the 9th!


End file.
